As this scheme doesn't start till next Friday and even if you have already registered, you can not use this service at present. So is it safe to assume these very expensive items have been stolen already? Has someone already hacked the key code?

The blogger has been seeing bikes being tested. And different numbers of bicycles are taking out at different times and tested in different locations. We're doing a lot of testing around the Southwark area that he refers to - so the differing numbers of bikes have nothing to do with theft, I'm pleased to say.

Good questions though, Jim. TfL also tells me that at the end of yesterday 6383 people had registered as scheme members (I'm one of them, God help me). The breakdown is quite interesting: 3,443 had signed up for a day, 307 for a week and 2,633 for a year. So that's a lot of dabblers, a lot of serious committers and not very many in between.

How about those 400 docking stations? TfL confirms that they won't all be ready for Friday morning but that the majority will. I saw a work-in-progress one in Fore Street Avenue on Saturday afternoon and another, fully-finished, round the back of Liverpool Street station. No time to lose. Raise my saddle. Ring my bell.